Search form

TRENDING:

FEATURED:

“The difference is that under the prior administration, the oil and gas
industry were essentially the kings of the world. Whatever they wanted to
happen essentially happened. This department was essentially a handmaiden of
the oil and gas industry,” he said on a conference call with reporters.

“We have brought that to an end."

Under the new procedures announced
by Salazar, Interior staff will conduct more detailed reviews of whether
development would be harmful to lands and wildlife, including more
on-the-ground visits.

The policies also pare back waivers from environmental analysis for some
oil and gas activities that were authorized under a major 2005 energy law, and
emphasize leasing in already-developed regions rather than new areas. The new
policies will affect leasing and development decisions in energy-rich states
where the federal government is a major landowner, including Colorado, Utah and
Wyoming.

Industry groups said the shift would
hurt the economy and make it more difficult to lessen U.S. dependence on
foreign energy sources.

“In what has become increasingly
familiar double-talk from this administration, Interior Secretary Salazar today
again spoke of the importance of domestic oil and natural gas, while making it
more difficult to produce American oil and gas, put more Americans back to work
and help restore our nation’s economy,” said Jack Gerard, president of the
American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s biggest trade group.

“Under the guise of offering certainty for investors, Interior Secretary
Salazar has taken steps to further delay and limit American energy resources
for all Americans,” he added.

An alphabet soup of other industry groups — the Independent Petroleum
Association of Mountain States, the Consumer Energy Alliance and the
Independent Petroleum Association of America — issued similar statements
alleging the plans would stymie development.

Initial reaction from Capitol Hill
was divided.

“I applaud Secretary Salazar for
taking some thoughtful and strategic actions that will both boost energy
production on public lands and maintain the integrity of these lands for all of
the other multiple uses that are so important to all Americans, including those
of us in New Mexico and the West,” said Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.).

“Interior Secretary Salazar claims the changes announced today will provide
certainty, but the only certainty they provide is that more production will be
driven overseas,” said Murkowski spokesman Robert Dillon.

Salazar said he was hopeful that the
changes would expand environmental protection while reducing the number of
parcels that are subject to administrative and legal challenges, which have
ballooned over the last decade.

Salazar was among the centrists in the Democratic
caucus when he was a Colorado senator, but his tenure as Interior secretary has
been marked by sharp exchanges with industry trade groups.